Canadian group Alimentation Couche-Tard approached French retail giant Carrefour for a “Approach”, said on Tuesday, January 12, the two companies in different press releases. “Discussions are very preliminary”, Carrefour said, while specifying what the Alimentation Couche-Tard approach was “Friendly”. “The terms of the transaction are still under discussion”, for its part, reported the Canadian group, confirming that it would like to conclude a “Friendly transaction”.
This language suggests that Alimentation Couche-Tard would not, for the time being, launch a takeover bid (OPA) at Carrefour if it ever met with opposition from the French group. “There is no certainty at this stage that these preliminary discussions will lead to an agreement”, warned the group, present in North America, Europe and Latin America through convenience stores.
Thunder in the world of distribution
These announcements came after Bloomberg reports. According to the press agency, which cites anonymous sources, the merger that Alimentation Couche-Tard wants would materialize in a merger with Carrefour, which claims a network of 12,300 stores in more than thirty countries around the world. in the world and employs more than 320,000 people.
This transaction would be a thunderbolt in the world of distribution, where Alimentation Couche-Tard still plays a minor role, while Carrefour is one of the main players alongside US hypermarket giant Walmart. However, Alimentation Couche-Tard made a notable entry into the Asian market in November, buying the Hong Kong Convenience Retail Asia group for about $ 360 million.
The price of a possible merger with Carrefour would have to be billions of dollars if the transaction were to take place. The French group achieved a turnover of 80.7 billion euros in 2019 and published on Tuesday evening a market capitalization of 12,644 million euros on the Paris Stock Exchange.
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